It was true, St. Augustine had said: "_Non
Christianised, Christi sumus_," but this saying had never been
understood, and very probably St. Augustine had not meant it in its
literal sense. At last the fundamental consciousness of Christianity had
triumphed: the principle of the "Son-of-Godship" inspired the soul of
the mystics; in future religion must emanate from the soul and find its
goal in God; written documents and--in the case of the profoundest
thinkers--examples were no longer needed. The heretical sects had been
content to reject post-evangelical tradition, in order to lay greater
stress on the words of Christ. They were genuine reformers, but they
were as much constrained by the historical facts as the Roman Catholic
Church, and their standpoint has to this day remained the standpoint of
the Protestant professions of faith.
The fact of this new conception attaching no importance to the
historical Jesus of Nazareth (had he never lived it would have made no
difference) made of it a new religion.
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